One August Night
Page 23
Acknowledgements
With thanks to:
Ian, Emily, Will, Miriam and Colin for all their love during lockdown
Mari Evans and team at Headline, my phenomenal and steadfast publisher, with special thanks to Flora Rees
Jonathan Lloyd and team at Curtis Brown, my lively and energetic literary agency
Emily Hislop and Fotini Pipi for their eagle eyes.
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother’s past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.
Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone’s throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga – Greece’s former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters, and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip . . .
‘A vivid, moving and absorbing tale, with its sensitive, realistic engagement with all the consequences of, and stigma attached to, leprosy’
Observer
‘War, tragedy and passion unfurl against a Mediterranean backdrop in this engrossing debut novel’
You magazine
‘Hislop carefully evokes the lives of Cretans between the wars and during German occupation, but most commendable is her compassionate portrayal of the outcasts’
Guardian
Get your copy here
Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada’s cobbled streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows nothing of the city’s shocking past; she is here to dance. But in a quiet café, a chance conversation and an intriguing collection of old photographs draw her into the extraordinary tale of Spain’s devastating civil war.
Seventy years earlier, the café is home to the close-knit Ramírez family. In 1936, an army coup led by Franco shatters the country’s fragile peace, and in the heart of Granada the family witnesses the worst atrocities of conflict. Divided by politics and tragedy, everyone must take a side, fighting a personal battle as Spain rips itself apart.
‘What sets Hislop apart is her ability to put a human face on the shocking civil conflict that ripped Spain apart for three bloody years between 1936 and 1939 . . . Stirring stuff’
Time Out
‘[The Return] should be required holiday reading for anyone going to Spain’
Daily Mail
‘Brilliantly recreates the passion that flows through the Andalusian dancers and the dark creative force of duende’
Scotland on Sunday
Get your copy here
Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, fire devastates the thriving Greek city where Christians, Jews and Muslims live side by side. Five years later, Katerina Sarafoglou’s home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she flees across the sea to an unknown destination in Greece. Soon her life will become entwined with Dimitri’s, and with the story of the city itself, as war, fear and persecution begin to divide its people.
Thessaloniki, 2007. A young Anglo-Greek hears his grandparents’ life story and realises he has a decision to make. For many decades, they have looked after the memories and treasures of the people who were forced to leave. Should he become their next custodian and make this city his home?
‘A sweeping, magnificently detailed and ambitious saga that wrestles with the turbulence of the period Hislop covers’
The Sunday Times
‘Storytelling at its best . . . just like a tapestry, when each thread is sewn into place, so emerge the layers and history of relationships past and present’
Sunday Express
‘Fresh, unusual and rather intrepid . . . with a tenacious attention to the tangled and controversial history that fuels her plots’
Independent
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Cyprus, 1972. Famagusta is the Mediterranean’s most desirable resort, a city bathed in the glow of good fortune. An ambitious couple open the island’s most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony.
Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Özkans, are among many who moved to Famagusta to escape years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island. But beneath the city’s façade of glamour and success, tension is building.
When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a disastrous conflict. Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is shelled. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers.
In the deserted city, just two families remain. This is their story.
‘Adroitly plotted and deftly characterised, Hislop’s gripping novel tells the stories of ordinary Greek and Turkish families trying to preserve their humanity in a maelstrom of deception, betrayal and ethnic hatred’
Mail on Sunday
‘Fascinating and moving . . . Hislop writes unforgettably about Cyprus and its people’
The Times
‘Intelligent and immersive . . . weaves a vast array of fact through a poignant, compelling family saga’
The Sunday Times
Get your copy here
Week after week, the postcards arrive, addressed to someone Ellie does not know, each signed with an initial: A.
These alluring cartes postales of Greece brighten her life and cast a spell on her. She decides she must see this country for herself.
On the morning Ellie leaves for Athens, a notebook arrives. Its pages tell the story of a man’s odyssey through Greece. Moving, surprising and sometimes dark, A’s tale unfolds with the discovery not only of a culture, but also of a desire to live life to the full once more.
‘With sumptuous photography, this is a lavish love letter to Greece’
Sunday Mirror
‘When it comes to tales about Greece, Hislop is an undisputed queen – and this is easily her best novel yet’
Heat
‘A beautiful tale of love, struggle and redemption’
Prima
‘Victoria Hislop might be our most ardent philhellene since Byron’
The Sunday Times
Get your copy here
Victoria’s novel
Those Who Are Loved
is available now . . .
‘Victoria Hislop’s view of history in her novels is,
like the writer herself,
a compassionate and generous one’
Scotsman
Buy title now
AND OTHER STORIES
In ten powerful stories, Victoria Hislop takes us through the streets of Athens and into tree-lined squares of Greek villages. As she brings to life their distinct atmosphere, she creates a host of unforgettable characters, from a lonesome priest to battling brothers, and from an unwanted stranger to a groom troubled by music and memory.
These bittersweet tales of love and loyalty, of separation and reconciliation, captured in Victoria Hislop’s unique voice, will stay with you long after you reach the end.
‘Beguiling . . . Her characters are utterly convincing and she has perfected her knack for describing everyday Greek life’
Daily Mail
‘Stunning . . . Intricate, beautifully observed and with a painter’s eye for imagery, in these stories Hislop evokes Greece, its people, its customs and traditions with a sensitivity that reveals her deep knowledge of not just the place but the human condition’
Express
‘Lyrical, twisty short stories’
Evening Standard
Get your copy here
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH VICTORIA
If you’d like to keep up to date with my latest release
s, you can reach me via my website and Facebook page or by following me on Twitter.
I’m looking forward to sharing my next book with you soon.
Victoria
www.victoriahislop.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
About the Book
About the Author
By Victoria Hislop
Praise for Victoria Hislop
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Afterword
Note on Leprosy
Acknowledgements